German Holocaust Reparations

World War II ended sixty-six years ago, but Germany is still paying reparations to Israel for the Holocaust. According to Strategy Page, Israel's purchase of German Dolphin-class submarines has been subsidized by Germany as part of ongoing Holocaust reparations.

Germany has agreed to pay 20 percent of the cost of a sixth Dolphin class submarine for Israel, which was ordered earlier this year. Two more are under construction, and will arrive in the next two years. ... The first two Dolphins were paid for by Germany, as was most of the cost of the third one. This is more of German reparations for World War II atrocities against Jews.

It's interesting that Holocaust reparations are helping pay for a key strategic force that helps ensure that Israel will not suffer a new holocaust.

The Israelis have developed a cruise missile, which is has a range of 1,500 kilometers and carries a 200 kiloton nuclear warhead. The objective of deploying nukes on subs is to further enhance deterrence to any nation launching a nuclear strike against Israel.

How long will Germany continue paying Holocaust reparations? According to an Israeli source the 2011 German budget for reparations is 110 million euros, to be used to compensate the estimated 520,000 survivors still alive worldwide. But the new submarine cost $650 million, twenty percent of which is 130 million.

I'm a big supporter of Israel, and it's nice that they can get the Germans to subsidize submarine purchases. If I were a German, however, I'd be pretty annoyed at this whole arrangement.They're already paying 110 million euros to survivors.

Germans Protest Clean Energy

Germany plans to extend the life-span of its existing nuclear power plants, but that idea brought out thousands of protesters.

Waving banners with slogans like “shut down the government now,” demonstrators trudged through rain to urge Merkel to backtrack and uphold a pledge made by her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder to switch off Germany’s nuclear power plants by 2021. ... Green Party flags and banners could be seen every step of the way as the protest descended on her office in Berlin.

This is exhibit A as to why many environmentalists just can't be taken seriously. It's pretty funny that the Green Party is actually opposing the one proven viable large-scale alternative energy source. Maybe they should change the name to the Oil & Coal Party. If you shut down nuclear plants, that energy will have to be replaced by other means. And pie-in-the-sky dreams about solar, wind or other left-wing environmentalist-approved energy just won't do the job. Anyone worried about climate change and limiting the use of fossil fuels should be a huge supporter of nuclear power. If Germany is stupid enough to shut down its nuclear power plants, maybe they could do us a favor, ship them to America and reopen them here. We could definitely use more.

Who Knew Investing Was So Dangerous?

When most people think of dangerous investments, they probably think about losing money. But in Germany, one financial advisor's bad investments led to his kidnapping and torture by a gang of outraged clients. In an even more unusual twist, the gang was made up of elderly retirees ranging from 60 to 79 years old. They were pretty unhappy about their loss of assets, and took it out on their financial advisor James Amburn.

During his confinement in the unheated cellar, Mr Amburn claims, he was burned with cigarettes, beaten, had two of his ribs broken when he was hit with a chair leg and chained up ''like an animal''.

He says he was fed only two bowls of watery soup during his four days in the dungeon.

He was fortunate to survive the experience and was rescued by authorities. I wonder if he will return to the investment business.

The German Airstrike Situation

A German-ordered airstrike in Afghanistan last Friday has turned into a major domestic and international incident for Germany.  To recap what happened, a German commander in Afghanistan called in an airstrike on two hijacked fuel tanker-trucks, fearing that they would be used for a suicide-bombing attack on a nearby German base. Up to as many as 125 people were killed in the attack -- apparently many of them civilians. The strike was actually carried out by a U.S. plane.

The German action came under intense criticism from the Afghan government, German opposition politicians/parties, and NATO allies, including the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General McChrystal. Afghan President Karzai claims that McChrystal called him, disclaimed any responsibility for the attack, and apologized.  

This whole thing demonstrates how not to handle such situations, and how not to conduct coalition warfare. Without waiting for any investigation, the German defense minister immediately insisted that only Taliban fighters were killed, destroying his credibility when the extent of civilian deaths became apparent. The U.S. commander, rather than keeping his mouth shut, and reserving comment until after the incident was investigated, foolishly criticized the Germans and undercut them with the Afghan government. Now the German government is irritated at the lack of support from the U.S. And then there is the German opposition. Rather than support their forces, who were in a difficult position, they'd rather attack them in order to undermine their mission in Afghanistan.  

I'm not a big fan of airstrikes in Afghanistan. They are a blunt instrument that isn't well suited for the nature of the war we are trying to fight. They almost always result in significant collateral damage, and irritate the Afghan government we are supposed to be supporting. But, the excessive whining about civilian casualties is getting ridiculous. Civilians die in wars, and they are even more likely to die when it is difficult to tell the civilians from the combatants. The German commander did what he thought was necessary to protect his men. Since the U.S. allowed him to call in our planes, we should have backed him up, not run to the Afghan government to say we had nothing to do with giving the order.  As for the Afghan government, it needs to stop its constant complaining and start facing reality.

Britain's WW2 German Forces

The Telegraph has an interesting article up about Germans who fought for Britain during World War Two.

Some 10,000 men and women from Germany and Austria, Jews and other opponents of the Nazi regime, fought in British uniform. As "friendly enemy aliens" they could not be compelled to join up. All were volunteers, representing almost one in eight of the 78,000 German and Austrian nationals who fled to Britain before September 1939.

One of those profiled in the article is Sir Ken Adam, born Klaus Adam, a film production designer famous for his work on James Bond movies and other major releases. His family was Jewish and wisely got out of Germany in 1934, moving to Britain. During WW2 Adam was the only German to serve as a Royal Air Force pilot.

Ethics vs. Religion

A contentious issue will be decided by referendum on Sunday in Berlin, Germany. Since 2006, Berlin has had a mandatory ethics course for high school students. There are also classes on religion, which are optional. Guess who objects to that situation? That's right, many religious people. They don't like the mandatory ethics course. They'd rather have students choose between ethics, and a religious class. In other words, they want a Muslim student to be able to opt out of ethics, and instead take a course on Islam, a Christian to take one on Christianity, and so forth.

Without knowing exactly what is in the ethics course, it is difficult to understand why it is so objectionable. Why shouldn't a government school be able to teach a mandatory secular ethics class? It's not discriminatory since all are required to take it. Religion isn't excluded, since classes on religion are available for those who wish to take them. In contrast, allowing students to choose a religious course for a mandatory course slot makes little sense and raises questions. What happens if the student belongs to a smaller religion that has no course available? Maybe there's a Caribbean immigrant who practices Santeria. I guess he's stuck with the ethics course instead. This sort of accommodation issue is bound to come up if the referendum passes.

You Can't Fight Piracy With Lawyers

A Somali pirate has filed suit against Germany, claiming "inhumane treatment." If anyone wants to know why piracy is flourishing off Somalia despite the presence of numerous international warships, they need look no further than this case.

Ali Mohamed AD was captured by the German Navy when he and eight other pirates attempted to capture a merchant ship. Rather than summarily executing him -- the traditional and customary penalty for anyone taken in an act of piracy -- the Germans stupidly turned him and his cohorts over to Kenya, supposedly for prosecution. Now, rather than just thanking his good luck that the West is paralyzed by ridiculous legalistic rules that forbid the execution of even traditionally-defined "enemies of humanity," this particular pirate is going see how far he can push his advantage. He's going to try to make Germany pay for capturing him while he engaged in piracy. 

Unfortunately there are no doubt lawyers ready to take up his case. And there are probably human rights activists and others looking into it. If this sort of thing continues, there will probably be people calling for an inquiry into how captured pirates are treated. What if they were subjected to any sort of harsh treatment? We can't have that. After all, we can't even harm known terrorists, let alone poor pirates just trying to make a living.

Catholics & Hitler

Yesterday there was a post up by Mark at Proud Atheists titled, "Why Do Christians Insist That Hitler Was an Atheist?" He gives this claim a quick debunking. Today, Deutsche Welle reports that

A German bishop has told his Easter congregation that mass murder and other crimes committed by the Nazis are evidence that atheism is inhumane. His comments have caused outraged among German atheist organizations.

As Mark points out, there is no evidence that Hitler considered himself an atheist, and plenty of evidence to the contrary. He had a bizarre mix of religious and quasi-religious beliefs, and certainly wasn't acting based on atheism. All anyone has to do is read his writings and speeches to see that. And the Catholic Church, particularly its German branch, is one of the last entities that should be lecturing anyone about the Holocaust, let alone trying to blame it on atheism. The spinelessness of the Catholic Church, and in some cases willing cooperation in the face of Nazism has been well-documented. If anyone wants to look at the evidence, Saul Friedlander's exhaustive two-volume study, Nazi Germany and the Jews, provides plenty of damning details.